Film
Early attempts
John Aglialoro optioned the film rights in 1992.A film adaptation of Atlas Shrugged was in "development hell" for nearly 40 years.[113] In 1972, Albert S. Ruddy approached Rand to produce a cinematic adaptation. Rand insisted on having final script approval, which Ruddy refused to give her, thus preventing a deal. In 1978, Henry and Michael Jaffe negotiated a deal for an eight-hour Atlas Shrugged television miniseries on NBC. Screenwriter Stirling Silliphant wrote the adaptation and obtained approval from Rand on the final script. When Fred Silverman became president of NBC in 1979, the project was scrapped.[114]
Rand, a former Hollywood screenwriter herself, began writing her own screenplay, but died in 1982 with only one-third of it finished. Her heir, Leonard Peikoff, sold an option to Michael Jaffe and Ed Snider. Peikoff would not approve the script they wrote, and the deal fell through. In 1992, investor John Aglialoro paid Peikoff over $1 million for an option with full creative control.[114] Two new scripts – one by screenwriter Benedict Fitzgerald and another by Peikoff's wife, Cynthia Peikoff – were deemed inadequate, and Aglialoro refunded early investors in the project.[115]
In 1999, under Aglialoro's sponsorship, Ruddy negotiated a deal with Turner Network Television (TNT) for a four-hour miniseries, but the project was killed after TNT merged with AOL Time Warner. After the TNT deal fell through, Howard and Karen Baldwin obtained the rights while running Philip Anschutz's Crusader Entertainment. The Baldwins left Crusader to form Baldwin Entertainment Group in 2004 and took the rights to Atlas Shrugged with them. Michael Burns of Lions Gate Entertainment approached the Baldwins to fund and distribute Atlas Shrugged.[114] A draft screenplay was written by James V. Hart[116] and rewritten by Randall Wallace,[117] but was never produced.
2011–2014 trilogy
Atlas Shrugged was made into a film trilogy, released between 2011 and 2014.
Atlas Shrugged: Part I
Taylor Schilling played Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged: Part I.In May 2010, Brian Patrick O'Toole and Aglialoro wrote a screenplay, intent on filming in June 2010. Stephen Polk was set to direct.[118] However, Polk was fired and principal photography began on June 13, 2010, under the direction of Paul Johansson and produced by Harmon Kaslow and Aglialoro.[119] This resulted in Aglialoro's retention of his rights to the property, which were set to expire on June 15, 2010. Filming was completed on July 20, 2010,[120] and the movie was released on April 15, 2011.[121] Taylor Schilling played Dagny Taggart and Grant Bowler played Hank Rearden.[122]
The film was met with a generally negative reception from professional critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 12% based on 52 reviews, with an average score of 3.8 out of 10.[123] The film had under $5 million in total box office receipts,[121] considerably less than the estimated $20 million invested by Aglialoro and others.[124] The poor box office and critical reception made Aglialoro reconsider his plans for the rest of the trilogy,[125] but other investors convinced him to continue.[126]
Atlas Shrugged: Part II
On February 2, 2012, Kaslow and Aglialoro announced they had raised $16 million to fund Atlas Shrugged: Part II.[127] Principal photography began on April 2, 2012;[128] the producers hoped to release the film before the US presidential election in November.[129] Because the cast for the first film had not been contracted for the entire trilogy, different actors were cast for all the roles.[130] Samantha Mathis played Dagny, with Jason Beghe as Hank and Esai Morales as Francisco d'Anconia.[131]
The film was released on October 12, 2012, without a special screening for critics.[132] It earned $1.7 million on 1012 screens for the opening weekend, which at that time ranked as the 109th worst opening for a film in wide release.[133] Critical response was highly negative; Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 4% rating based on 23 reviews, with an average score of 3.2 out of 10.[134] The film's final box office total was $3.3 million.[133]
Atlas Shrugged: Part III: Who Is John Galt?
The third part in the series, Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt?, was released on September 12, 2014.[135] Dagny was played by Laura Regan, with Rob Morrow as Hank, Kristoffer Polaha as John Galt, and Joaquim de Almeida as Francisco. The movie opened on 242 screens and grossed $461,179 on its opening weekend; the final box office total was $851,690.[136] It was reviewed unfavorably by critics, holding a 0% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews, with an average score of 1.8 out of 10.[137]
Future
In 2015, The New York Times reported that Ruddy had come to an agreement with Aglialoro to make a new television adaptation of Atlas Shrugged.[138]
On November 17, 2022, producer Jeremy Boreing announced that conservative media company The Daily Wire optioned the rights to Atlas Shrugged. The company plans to create a series based on the novel for the DailyWire+ video on demand service, in cooperation with the Bonfire Legend movie studio and Aglialoro's Atlas Distribution Company.[139]
Stage
Atlas Shrugged has been adapted twice as stage plays in German. In 2013, Stefan Bachmann, director of the Schauspiel Köln in Cologne, staged Der Streik (The Strike), a four-hour adaptation co-written by Bachmann and Jens Gross. Bachmann had begun the adaptation eight years earlier, but the theaters he worked for prior to Schauspiel Köln were dismissive of the idea.[140] In January 2021, director Nicolas Stemann presented a three-hour musical adaptation, also titled Der Streik, in Zürich, Switzerland. Stemann's version of the story from the novel is presented as a story within a story being staged by a "Church of Ayn Rand" that is associated with the alt-right and white supremacy.[141]
